Focus And Concentration

The middle poses in my last life drawing session, 15 minutes each, are when I start to focus and concentrate. I’ve done the warm ups to get the gist of her face, so now I’m really looking at the structure, proportions and details.

Portrait Drawing: Week 9

Last week was the 9th session since I started back at life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop after a long break (see here) and here are the warm-up sketches. I’m aiming to improve my portrait drawing over the next year. The first is a 5 minute sketch, the second a 10 minute, using a graphite block ontoContinue reading “Portrait Drawing: Week 9”

Playing With Pattern

This is the final sketch I did at the last life drawing session of 2025 at Swansea Print Workshop. Although she has short hair, it is styled and I used my pen to create patterns. It’s given me ideas for how I might develop it.

Textures In Pen

During my last life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop, I switched to a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen and started to enjoy playing with textures. This is a 10 minute pose onto vintage paper (no watermark).

Switching To Pen

For the last few sketches at the recent life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop, I switched from my usual graphite block to a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen. The graphite is great for tones and simple line work, but I wanted to get more fine details so I made the switch. I did theContinue reading “Switching To Pen”

More Time, More Accuracy

This is a 25 minute pose from my most recent life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. Having more time doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a lot more content than in a quicker drawing. This 25 minute pose doesn’t have much more than one of the 15 minute poses, but it’s a lot more “correct” –Continue reading “More Time, More Accuracy”

Trying Out Textures

Here’s the middle poses at my last life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop , two 15 minute poses using graphite onto a good quality but reasonably cheap cartridge paper. I started to play with the texture in the model’s hair, she has a short yet fairly elaborate hair style.

Portrait Drawing: Week 8

It’s 8 weeks since I started back at life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop after a long break (see here) and here are the warm-up sketches. I’m aiming to improve my portrait drawing over the next year. These are 5 minute sketches, using a graphite block onto a good quality but cheap cartridge paper. Sometimes I makeContinue reading “Portrait Drawing: Week 8”

The Scribbly Lines

The last sketch that I posted of this model was drawn in a very stark way, but this pose inspired me to go a bit scribbly. It took 45 minutes and I used graphite onto a heavy vintage paper (make unknown). I spent a lot of time analysing the hand. I’m out of practice, IContinue reading “The Scribbly Lines”

The Stark Lines

This pose inspired me to do an analytical drawing, lots of measuring and spare, stark lines. The model is very thin and his features lend themselves to precision. It was a 15 minute pose and I used graphite onto a good quality but reasonably cheap cartridge paper.